Foskeia pelendonum is latest identified dinosaur
A new species of dinosaur, Foskeia pelendonum,has been identified by an international team. The little plant eater lived in the Early Cretaceous in what is now Vegagete in Spain. Around half a metre long animal is among the smallest known member of the ornithopod family of dinosaurs.
The study was led by Paul-Emile Dieudonné (National University of Río Negro, Argentina). It reveals that, despite its size Foskeia pelendonum had an unusually advanced skill, with the findings placing it closer to the earliest roots of the European herbivorous dinosaur group, Rhabdodontidae.
“From the very first moment anybody sees this animal one is staggered by its extreme smallness,” says Dieudonné. “And yet it preserves a highly derived cranium with unexpected anatomical innovations.”
The fossils represented at least five individuals and were found by Fidel Torcida Fernández-Baldor of the Dinosaur Museum of Salas de los Infantes. They stood out immediately for their tiny proportions.
“From the beginning, we knew these bones were exceptional because of their minute size. It is equally impressive how the study of this animal overturns global ideas on ornithopod dinosaur evolution,” he says.
The name comes from ancient Greek, with the prefix fos meaning light (as in weight), and skei being derived from boskein meaning foraging. The species name, pelendonum, honours the Pelendones, a Celtiberian tribe that once inhabited the Fuentes del Duero region, north of the province of Soria, southeast of Burgos and perhaps the southeast of La Rioja.
According to researchers, this animal plays a vital role in understanding the evolution of dinosaurs. “Miniaturization did not imply evolutionary simplicity, this skull is weird and hyper-derived,” Marcos Becerra of Universidad Nacional de Córdoba said.
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